One example of known conventional cloths separating devices is the device described in Patent Literature 1. This cloths separating device is equipped with a carriage which moves up and down in the vertical direction, a clamp provided at the lower end of the carriage, an air jet spray mechanism provided in an intermediate part of the hoistway of the carriage, a belt conveyor which has one end facing the air jet spray mechanism across the hoistway of the carriage and rocks in the upper-lower direction, and a tucking roller which is pressed by a spring against the belt of the belt conveyer at the end of the belt conveyor.
Such a conventional cloths separating device works as follows: the carriage is moved down to pick a part of a bundle of cloths inside a laundry container with the clamp; the carriage is moved straight upward to pick up the cloths with the clamp; when the carriage has been moved up to an upper limit position, the clamp releases the cloths and at the same time the air jet spray mechanism sprays air jet onto the cloths to thrust a middle part of the cloths onto the belt conveyor; and the belt conveyor tucks the middle part of the cloths between the tucking roller and the belt conveyor, and sends the cloths to the other end of the belt conveyor while disentangling the cloths by rocking in the upper-lower direction.